Australian Muscle Car

steve normoyle

It’s been a pleasant and humbling surprise to have received as many messages of congratulations as I have on assuming the Australian Muscle Car editor’s chair. I think it shows how respected this magazine is out there (and rightly so). My immediate predecessor, Luke West, remains on board in the (slightly less stressed) capacity of Editor-at-Large. Luke has expertly steered the AMC ship through its last eight years – and I have to say that the benefit of his knowledge and guidance has made putting together my first issue a much less fraught process than it would otherwise have been. I’m new to this role but I’ve been around the AMC traps for quite a while. Actually, I was there in the beginning, when founding editor Mark Oastler turned up at the…

hsv rolls out first zl1s

Here’s something to ponder. HSV had to crash three Chevrolet Camaro ZL1s to gain certification for Australian sale. Imagine that; three of these beaut 480kW supercharged V8 beast being run into a wall! “It was super-painful,” says HSV boss Tim Jackson. It’s all that sort of stuff going on behind the scenes that racks up the dollars and makes HSV’s right-hand drive ‘remanufacturing’ Camaro project such a difficult business case to get across the line, even with the original MY18 2SS gaining a strong response in Australia. But ticked off it has been, and around now ZL1s are rolling in to HSV dealerships valued at a cool $159,990 plus on-road costs for the six-speed manual.The new 10-speed auto adds $2200. The 2SS is also updated for 2019, priced from $86,990 for the new manual…

new nagari

The legendary Aussie Bolwell Nagari is back… again. First launched in 1969 by brothers Campbell and Graeme Bolwell and then totally overhauled for the 21st century as the Toyota V6-powered Bolwell 300 in 2009 (top), the third iteration of the Nagari will be all-new and drive its rear wheels via a mid-mounted 373kW 6.2-litre Chevrolet LS3 V8 and six-speed manual transmission. A bonafide attempt at an Aussie supercar, the original Nagari was an automotive sensation down under. The 920kg two-door (insets) was usually powered by a Ford 302 Windsor V8, which meant it could accelerate from 0-100km/h in 6.4 seconds and dash across the quarter mile in 14.3 seconds. In 1970 these were stunning numbers and a little bit terrifying considering the steering came out of an Austin Tasman. Later, Nagaris were fitted…

untamed mustang rampages in supercars stable

It’s understandable if you’re losing interest in – or at least understanding of – what’s going on in the 2019 Supercars championship. On-track it’s been a DJR Team Penske Ford Mustang white-and-red wash… Twelve races run as this was written and 10 race wins for championship leader Scott McLaughlin and his teammate Fabian Coulthard. But it’s off-track where the confusion, disillusion and disagreement has really ramped up, much of it because of misunderstanding about fundamental Supercars technical rules. Maybe a few clarifications can help here. First off, Supercars are not based on production cars. They are built over the top of a control chassis and rollcage that dictates wheelbase, tracks and height. That’s much of the reason – but not all the reason – why the racing Mustang looks so little like the road-going version. To…

amg goes all-paw

Two-turning and two-burning looks set to become a thing of the past for the German hooligan tuners AMG. Traditionally almost Australian in its passion for V8s and rear-wheel drive, the Mercedes-Benz hot-up division looks set to transition to all-wheel drive for all its models. That includes the next generation of the thundering C63 – which is very popular in Australia – and even the GT flagship. It’s a sad move if you are a rear-drive purist, remembering AMG first came to fame courtesy of the ‘red pig’ 6.3-litre V8 300SEL sedan that raced in the Spa 24 Hours and the European Touring Car Championship in the early 1970s. The good news is various tunes of the company’s 4.0-litre biturbo V8 seem set to stay part of the company’s long list of performance models for…

hume weird

Our Sacred Sites section this issue recalls the colourful history of a string of club-level race tracks that sprang up around the north-eastern region of Victoria in the 1950s and early 1960s. Most of them used an oil bonded dirt surface rather than actual bitumen (which few of the small local car clubs could afford) and they were usually not much more than a kilometre in length. These country tracks were a bit rough and ready, but importantly they provided an inexpensive way for car club members to go motor racing. Not that the ‘big time’ tracks of that region – Winton and Hume Weir – were all that flash on the facilities front, as Ron Gillard (our featured Muscle Man this issue), recalls from his first visit to Hume Weir: “It was a…